Mail ballot glitch leads to addition of drop-off box

By: BOB STEPHENS

October 23, 2012

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A ballot dropoff location has been added by the El Paso County Clerk & Recorder’s office because some voters received outdated election material in the mail.

The secrecy sleeve included with some mail ballots was from the June 26 primary election and had dropoff locations printed on it. One of those locations, the Charles C. Brown Transportation and Environment Complex, 3275 Akers Drive, was not in the plan for the general election — but it is now.

Jim Simerville left a voicemail on the Gazette’s tip line when the mail ballots for he and his wife included secrecy sleeves for the June primary election.

“I thought it might be confusing,” Simerville said. “I wondered how many people got those.”

The clerk’s office isn’t sure, but said the mistake was made by the vendor, Integrated Voting Solutions of Denver, that was hired to insert and mail ballots.

Alissa Vander Veen, chief deputy and communications manager for the clerk’s office, said Simerville’s ballot “was sent by IVS. We were able to determine that. We had two (election) judges open his ballot and his wife’s and they’ve been counted.”

Vander Veen said ballots can be dropped off or mailed back without the secrecy sleeve, which is meant to provide privacy when a ballot is opened by an election judge.